Lesson overview
Objective: Establish a fixed working schedule
Summary: Your ability to do meaningful academic work depends more on managing your limited cognitive energy than extending your working hours. Most people only have the mental energy to complete a few hours of deep work per day - protect these for your highest-value work. The key is working backwards - rather than letting work expand to fill the available time, start with your fixed schedule and make intentional choices about what fits within it.
Key habits:
- Set a firm end time for your workday and stick to it
- Track your actual working hours to see where boundaries slip
- Build a 10-minute end-of-day routine
- Communicate your working hours clearly to colleagues and students
Introduction
Creativity, progress, and impact do not yield to brute force.
Hannson & Fried (2018)
Working longer hours will almost never give you the solution to the problems you care about. One of the great privileges of academic work is that you can often work flexible hours, but just because you can work anywhere and any time, it doesn’t mean that you should. Each of us has about 3-4 ‘good’ hours in us, where our cognitive energy is highest. This lesson is about making sure you allocate those hours appropriately.
Fixed-schedule productivity
Working longer hours rarely leads to better outcomes in academia. The law of diminishing returns (see image right) shows us that after about 3-4 hours of deep work, each additional hour yields progressively less value while increasing stress and fatigue. Yet many academics respond to pressure by extending their workday, letting work seep into evenings and weekends—a strategy that ultimately undermines both productivity and well-being.
Fixed-schedule productivity offers a more sustainable approach. Instead of letting work expand to fill every available moment, you establish clear boundaries around your working hours and then fit your tasks within those limits. This might seem impossible in academia, but it’s precisely these constraints that drive better decision-making about how you use your time.
Key principles of fixed-schedule productivity:
- Focus on peak energy: Protect 3-4 hours of peak cognitive energy each day for your most valuable work
- Work backward: Start from fixed hours to make strategic choices about priorities
- Set firm boundaries: Establish end times to your workday and stick to them, even when work is unfinished
- Use rituals: Build an end-of-day ritual to process remaining tasks and mentally disconnect
- Publicise your schedule: Make your working hours visible to help others respect your boundaries
- Plan regularly: Working within constraints requires more intentional planning than endless expansion
The goal isn’t to work less, but to work more intentionally. When you establish clear boundaries between work and rest, you create the conditions for both meaningful academic contributions and a sustainable career. Your best thinking happens when you’re fresh and focused, not when you’re stretched thin across endless hours.
Law of diminishing returns
[Image placeholder: Law of diminishing returns graph]
Practical examples
Fixing your work hours isn’t about being inflexible - it’s about being intentional with your limited energy and showing others that academic work can be both meaningful and sustainable.
Early career academic
Scenario: You’re trying to write a grant proposal while managing teaching demands and service commitments.
Fixed-schedule approach:
- Set a non-negotiable end time for your workday
- Move early morning grant writing to a different location (like the library) to avoid disruption
- Let colleagues know you’re unavailable before 11:00
- If you haven’t finished by your fixed time, note where you stopped and what comes next, then close your laptop
Key insight: Protecting your finite energy for high-value work is more important than stretching your day to accommodate everything.
Teaching-focused academic
Scenario: Students email at all hours expecting rapid responses, and you feel pressured to be constantly available.
Fixed-schedule approach:
- Communicate clear response windows in your course outline (e.g., 24-hour response time during work hours)
- Set up an email autoresponder stating your working hours
- Schedule specific times for email responses during your workday
- Resist the urge to “quickly check” emails outside work hours
Key insight: Being available 24/7 doesn’t make you a better teacher; being present and energised during work hours does.
Leadership role
Scenario: You have administrative responsibilities, meetings, and strategic planning alongside your research agenda.
Fixed-schedule approach:
- Define your firm daily start and end times
- Build in buffer time for genuinely urgent matters
- Delegate what can be handled by others
- When you reach your end time, postpone non-critical tasks to tomorrow
Key insight: Your leadership is more effective when you model sustainable work practices.
Graduate supervision
Scenario: Your graduate students work irregular hours and often send urgent requests late at night or on weekends.
Fixed-schedule approach:
- Set clear supervision boundaries in your first meeting (e.g., “I’m available 9am-5pm weekdays”)
- Schedule regular supervision slots during your work hours, not early mornings or evenings
- Create a shared document for students to note urgent discussion points between meetings
- If students send late-night messages, respond during your next work day
Key insight: Students learn sustainable academic practices from you. By respecting your own boundaries, you teach them to develop healthy working patterns for their careers.
Energy mapping exercise
Energy mapping activity
The purpose of this energy mapping exercise is to help you work within fixed hours by identifying your 3-4 hours of peak cognitive energy each day, making it clear why extending your workday rarely leads to better outcomes.
Download the template [link to be added]
Instructions:
- Track your energy levels throughout the day for one week
- Note when you feel most alert and focused
- Identify your 3-4 hours of peak cognitive energy
- Plan to schedule your most important work during these hours
Question
Pause and reflect
Take a moment to consider how fixed schedules might work in your academic context:
- Think about your current working patterns - when do you start and end your day?
- How often do you work in the evenings or weekends?
- What boundaries could you realistically establish?
Now imagine what your work life would look like with clearer boundaries:
- What would be your ideal end time each day?
- Which tasks would you prioritise during your peak cognitive hours?
- What changes would you need to make to your current commitments and habits?
Remember: Establishing fixed schedules isn’t about being inflexible - it’s about creating the mental space needed for meaningful academic work while maintaining a sustainable long-term practice.
Activity
Start your fixed-schedule practice today
Today, start building your fixed-schedule foundation with these simple steps:
Step 1: Set your boundary
- Choose your end time for today - not shorter than your contracted hours, but not longer either
Step 2: Prioritise ruthlessly
- Review your tasks and move anything non-essential to later in the week
Step 3: Create a reminder
- Set an alarm for 10 minutes before your chosen end time to help you wrap up
Step 4: Process and close
- Use this wrap-up time to quickly process remaining tasks into your calendar
- Before leaving, place a sticky note on your laptop that says “Don’t work at night” as a reminder
Bonus step: Share your commitment to fixed hours with family or colleagues and ask them to gently help you stick to it. Over the next few lessons, we’ll build the routines and systems to help maintain these boundaries.
Key takeaways
- Cognitive energy is finite: Working longer hours rarely leads to better solutions in academic work. The law of diminishing returns shows that after about 3-4 peak cognitive hours, additional time yields progressively less value.
- Fixed-schedule productivity works backwards: Establish clear boundaries around your working hours first, then work backwards to ensure tasks fit within those constraints, rather than letting work expand to fill the available time.
- Success requires commitment to the system: Fixed schedules only work when you commit to the whole system - public accountability with family and colleagues, practical tools like scheduling alarms, and the willingness to make tough decisions about what truly fits in your day.
Resources
- Burkeman, O. (2021). Four thousand weeks: Time management for mortals. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Fried, J. & Hansson, D.H. (2018). It doesn’t have to be crazy at work. HarperCollins.
- Manson, M. (2017). How to be more productive by working less. Observer.
- Newport, C. (2022). Fixed schedule productivity. Study Hacks blog.
Share your experience
Do you have any experiences or insights that you’d like to share with others? What habits and routines have you implemented in your own practice that have helped in this area? Do you have any questions about your specific context that are not addressed in this lesson? Please leave a comment for other participants in the field below.